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Wednesday, 28 November 2012

nine patch laid

Being a follower of Jude I have developed a great affection for the sweet simplicity of the nine patch. Of course she takes it and does the most wonderful things, setting it free to celebrate the spirit of a loved cat, stitching it into stars, bending and weaving it around the moon. I love the subtlety of her work, the frayed edges and the gentle colours, the way she invests so much of her life into it's being, and brings us into her story with her honest words and beautiful cloths. I have watched what she does for some time now, popping over for each update, diving off into the blogs of her followers to see where others take her inspiration. One day, when I have more time, I would like to take one of her online classes, to see where that inspiration could take me. But for now I am learning, learning, learning, in between working and doing life. As well as taking Christine's monthly classes at Studio11, I am currently stitching samplers for the City and Guilds; our theme is grids - how appropriate. So we've had a splish splash splosh day with Barbara and have been sent away to explore the grid and to try our hand at laid work and couching. Well, I've not done either before, so am really enjoying learning new things. I've done a little bit of couching, but there will be more to do before next Saturday if I have time

With the template we made at the class, which reminds me irrepressibly of the Playschool Windows, I've done some design work on grids,

my favourite probably being the black and white one

and I've been practicing my laid work as ... a nine patch

Of course this is quite different from Jude's subtle colours and complex cloths. It's a simple exercise in stitching, and tremendous fun to do. But still, it has the tiniest element of Jude in it, just a whisper in the shadows of the stitches really, a thought of her, as my needle went in and out, to and fro, weaving colours into cloth.

It pleases me. I hope it will pass muster on Saturday when we have our next class.

2 comments:

I took one look at your couching piece and was enthralled - this is not what I normally associate with it - and so much more enticing. If you have a chance, would you just let me know how you do it - my fingers are itching to give it a go.

Oooh, thank you, what lovely words! I feel very much a novice in all this so can't claim any expertise, I'm just having fun playing! If you'd like to send me an email at kwoollett@gmail.com I can scan in the bits we had from our tutor and send them to you along with a couple of other bits from a very good stitch book I came across via Joe on Manhandled Threads. It really is quite straightforward, but produces such lovely results :-)